Saturday, December 15, 2012

Why You'll Dig it:

GIGABYTE were fairly quick in getting the
GTX 680 overclock sample to market, this
is largely due to the fact it is built following the
NVIDIA reference design. This means full-cover
water blocks will fit easily on to the cards, and
also means "GPU Boost" is fully enabled, for
better or worse.

The Windforce cooler looks to be the same as
always, comprising of three thin fans and a fairly
slim aluminium heat sink that spans the entire
length of the card. The cooler is thin enough to
"stack" four cards together in 4-way SLI, unlike
many other models on the market today, yet
efficient enough to keep the GPU core and all
on-board componentry nice and cool.

In our testing we never exceeded 80°C, even
while running the fans at an inaudible 1 ,800
RPM. If you would like to keep temperatures
closer to the 70°C mark under 30 load,
increasing the fan speed
to a whisper-quiet 2,500
RPM will provide a good
balance of temperature and
audibility.

For air overclockers this
card is more than adequate,
and even water-cooling
Atomicans will find joy in working
on this card. We managed a core
clock of around 1230MHz, which
should be more than enough grunt for
any game, even when spanned across
three screens. For those wanting to take the
card further, we would suggest waiting for the
Super Overclock Edition, which will have a new
VRM design, allowing users to bypass the "GPU
Boost" technology.

GPU output includes two DVI, single HDMI
and a single Display Port, giving users the
freedom to connect any monitor without the use
of dongles or adapters.

All in all the GTX 680 Overclock Edition from
Gigabyte is a good all-round card, offering
high connectivity, a compact - yet powerful -
cooler, a three year warranty, fair price tag and
decent overclocking headroom, one can't really
complain. All that is left to do is find a
store than has 680s in stock.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Why You'll Dig it:

We’ve always known how quick solidstate memory can be, but it wasn’t until USB 3.0 that ultra-speed storage became available in a highly portable package. The latest product we have on the market is the 64GB SanDisk Extreme USB Flash Drive. This turbocharged drive is also available in 32GB ($94.99) and 16GB ($64.99) capacities.

The SanDisk Extreme is a stylish flash drive, with a glossy and matte black exterior that tapers to a fine edge on the back. The business end of the device slides into and out of the housing with the flip of a switch, so you can keep the USB 3.0 port clean when it’s not in use.

With its 64GB capacity, this drive can handle a ton of data, thousands of uncompressed WAV files and significantly more FLAC or MP3 files, hundreds of high-resolution RAW image files and thousands of JPEGs, dozens of hours of standard-def video and even a handful of uncompressed HD movies. But the possibilities don’t stop there. If you upgrade to Windows 8 Enterprise, due out in October, the Windows To Go feature lets you boot and run the OS from a flash drive. SanDisk’s speedy memory stick and Windows To Go is the next best thing to
adding an SSD to every PC you use.

Video Review (Geekanoids)

Where To Get it?

SanDisk also made security a priority for the Extreme. SanDisk SecureAccess creates a password-protected folder that uses 128-bit AES encryption to keep your most sensitive documents away from prying eyes. Just drag and drop your important data to the folder to lock it down. SanDisk also gives Extreme users an extra 2GB of cloud storage, courtesy of YuuWaa (www.yuuwaa.com), which lets you access a handful of important files from any web browser.

With its USB 3.0 interface, you’d expect this flash drive to be quick on the draw, so we ran CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 to see just how quick. Using a 100MB test file size, the SanDisk Extreme scored 197.8MBps on the sequential read test and 181.2MBps on the sequential write
test. We fished out a generic USB 2.0 drive we’ve been using for a couple years, and it scored 25.18MBps and 8.8MBps in the sequential read and write tests, respectively. Needless to say, the SanDisk Extreme USB Flash Drive is a more than suitable replacement.

Running on eBay now

Why You'll Dig it:

Logitech makes some great gaming gear, so it’s no surprise that the G930 has a number of bells and whistles. This headset uses a 2.4GHz connection to stream uncompressed 48kHz audio
between the charging base and the headset, and you’ll have to hear to believe the resulting crystal clear audio. The wireless range is also impressive, up to 40 feet according to Logitech, which we verified in an office with numerous Wi-Fi networks to interfere.

This headset uses a pair of 40mm neodymium magnet drivers (20Hz to 20kHz frequency response). Thanks to second-generation Dolby Headphone technology, you can game and watch
movies in virtual 7.1 surround sound. The flexible mic boom angles up and out of the way when not needed, and an unobtrusive red LED indicates when the mic is muted.

The headset is impressively light, and it helps that there aren’t any wires hanging from one side. Comfort was on par with the best in this roundup. The unit has an internal rechargeable
battery that offers up to 10 hours of play time, but you can still use it while charging from the USB charging base. We also like the on-ear volume control, programmable G-keys, and
software that lets you morph your voice. Although it’s one of the more expensive headsets you can buy, the extras make this one of the more comfortable, portable, and best-sounding headsets.